reliving the past through fashion

Tag: ACen 2014

So, you know that I am going to Anime Central as Ciel Phantomhive in his girl getup. my little sis wanted to go as Alois Trancy in his girl getup. I think it’s a cute idea, the both of us dressed up as boys dressing up as girls!

anyhow, I’m just about finished with her costume – just some hand-sewing finishing touches to put on. this project took much longer than it should have. I’ve been feeling crummy all week and I just did not have the motivation to get this done. but I’ve got so much other stuff I need to start on, that I had no choice!

here he is in his lovely maid outfit. there are not a lot of (reliable) good pictures of what this costume actually looks like, but it’s pretty simple. I made my version a little more period-accurate, as I did with the Ciel gown.

the bodice and skirt are made of cotton sateen – the only thing I bought for this costume besides the pattern. I used Simplicity 1558 for the bodice pattern, mainly because I won’t have a chance to fit this costume on my sis before the event and I didn’t want to fuss with drafting a pattern. instead of making the gown one-piece, I did a bodice and a skirt, which has a more period look.

I made a little petticoat so the skirt would have some volume. yes, the petticoat is cockeyed – no, I don’t care much. it doesn’t affect the look of the skirt so I’ll fix it if I have time, but otherwise, I’m not bothered. it’s made from a thrifted sheet, and it’s actually really soft and luxurious, I think it’s Egyptian cotton.

(edit: while disassembling this outfit from my dress form, I discovered that I put the petticoat on sideways. that’s why it’s cockeyed. durh!)

bodice and skirt together. I used some vintage lace from my stash on the cuffs and the collar. I haven’t put the hooks on yet; it’s pinned up the front on my dress form.

the whole shebang, front and back. (ignore all my pins; tacking the trim on the bodice is one of the three things I still have to do on this costume.) I took a little liberty with the apron for a more period look. it’s also made from a thrifted sheet that’s quite soft and sleek. I just love thrifty costumes!

and there it is! a project that should have taken me less than a day somehow took me the better part of three, but it’s done now and I’m satisfied. I have to make the little hat thingy, too, but that’s the last of the things that need to be finished. the only thing I wish was different was I should have made the apron a little longer. oh, in case anyone wonders, the total cost for this costume was less than $50, including the pattern that I bought not on sale. of course, my Ciel costume cost a bit more than I projected, because I ran out of stuff, so it balances out.

I found my camera (hiding in a bag of sewing junk – what a surprise) so I actually have some good photos of a project for once! at least, as good as they get considering I’ve got no talent for photography. If I take a picture without getting my thumb in front of the lens that’s pretty good for me!

(it sits crooked on my dress form, I don’t know why. I fussed with every layer for a half hour and couldn’t get it to lay right. perhaps because it fits my body, which is not a dress form, perfectly?)

there are several layers to this costume.

first is the under petticoat and my “bustle” – a bum pad that I found in a box, I can’t for the life of me remember what costume I wore it with before! the petticoat is my Jasmine petticoat from way back when. I recall saying at the time that I might wear this over a bustle someday… I probably wasn’t imagining something like this costume, though!

the underskirt. I draped the pattern for this on my dress form; it’s pretty simple, two panels and two gores, with a small train. the back is just pleated where the bustle sits. the pleats on this sucker drove me nuts, and I ran out of fabric and luckily was able to get a little more in the same color.

the top skirt, also draped on top of the other two skirts to ensure that the shape and the gathers were just right. it was a fussy process, and I’m less pleased with the end result than I’d like, but I think I did as much as I could with my choice of fabric. I wanted two layers of pleats on this skirt, too, but I simply didn’t have enough fabric. I put a giant bow and some frills on the back just because. this is supposed to be a big, frilly, girly dress. nothing says girly like an ass bow with roses, right?

the whole ensemble. it is a little crooked, but not so much on me as it is in these pictures. the back does lace shut.

I made the little choker/neck frill thing from scraps of my ivory fabric. then I went digging through my bags and bags of ribbon stash, only to find that I don’t have a single thin pink ribbon. I did, however, have this frilly pink piece of trim, so I went with it.

and last but not least, the hat. I covered a straw hat from Michael’s with the pink fabric. by this point, I was nearly out of the ivory – down to scraps and worrying about how I was going to finish my pleats – but luckily, I had some really lovely silk in a nearly identical color, so the hat is lined with that and the bow is from silk. I feel like the cotton would have looked a little cheap; the silk brings a nice fancy touch to the hat. the roses under the brim only go round the front of the hat, and I stuck some in the back just for fun. I still have some roses left over from that bouquet I butchered; I may do a little more trimming before I call this project complete.

whew! now that this beast is past me, I’ve got another costume to get cracking on right away – my sister’s! I worked on it a little already, but I’ll save it as a surprise, and cover it in another post once I’ve made some real progress.

I mentioned in my last post that I’ll be going to Anime Central in May. I haven’t been to an anime convention in at least ten years, but it’s a wonderful chance to dress up and show off my costumes, so I’m going this year! I started working on my costume this week, and I’ve made pretty good progress, if I do say so myself!

I’m going with my little sister, and she was the one who picked our characters.

I’ll be going as the girl version of Ciel from Black Butler. which means I get to build a big, frilly ball gown!

I planned things out, and decided what changes I wanted to make to the original idea. the story is set in the Victorian era, in the late 1880s, so I wanted to make my costume more reflective of that period of fashion than it is in the anime. even the best-made versions of this gown I’ve seen still look… well, costumey, so I aimed to make mine look more like a real outfit from that time, a formal gown that a woman might have worn at that time. also, I wanted to change the color scheme from pink and white to pink and ivory, just out of personal preference.

I went fabric shopping this weekend… and really was disappointed, even more so than I usually am by my local fabric store. they didn’t have much in the colors I was looking for. as for fabric, I was determined to avoid satin – again out of personal preference; I don’t like shiny fabrics – and in the end I went with cotton calico, because they had both the colors and yardage I needed. it’s not as fancy as I’d have liked, but then again, this is a costume – something I’m going to be traipsing around in for hours, something that’s going to get dirty and probably stepped on.

I started working on the bodice on Sunday.

this was my first draft, which ended up fitting the best. I pinned it on my dress form with canvas, and then cut a mock-up out of a lighter weight cotton. the only alteration it needed was to cut the armhole a little smaller, so I was good to go!

the inner layer of the bodice is two layers of a heavier cotton calico that I had laying around. I put two bones at every seam and along the darts. I used cable ties for a few reasons: I had some available, for one, and I didn’t want this thing to be as heavy as a corset. the inner lining is heavy enough to keep the bodice up on its own, but the bones give it that little extra support. the shape was important to me, because a gown like this would have been worn over a corset in period, but I didn’t want to actually have to wear a corset under my costume, for reasons of comfort.

here’s the bodice with the outer layer attached. I made a mistake, and cut the fashion fabric using my first un-altered pattern, and so the arm holes were a little too deep. I didn’t realize until I had the thing put together. I left it that way because I didn’t feel like taking it apart, and because it doesn’t make a difference in how the bodice fits.

the pleated trim was just a tube of the ivory fabric turned inside out and pleated to fit. I somehow miscalculated and ended up with twice the length I needed for the top of the bodice… but no worries, because I need a mile of pleats for the underskirt, so I’m a bit ahead of the game there.

the bodice is finished! it looks bad on my dress form, but it fits me to a tee. it laces up the back with grommets. I debated a back-lacing bodice versus one that closed in the front, and went with back-lacing for two reasons: the gown in the anime does have a corset-ish black ribbon decoration up the back, and I thought it would look better than a front-closing gown with all that stuff right smack in the front. plus, I have seen a fashion plate with a back-lacing bodice on a ball gown, so I can call it period accurate 😀

I bought a grommet setter, and this project was the first time I used it. I’ve always used an awl and a hammer to set grommets in the past, but after slicing my hand open for the third time with my awl, I got frustrated, and decided to give the tool a try. I’m pleased with the way it works, after I got the hang of it! (my first few grommets came out pretty ugly, though!) I still don’t like the idea of punching holes in fabric – I think the awl is better – but it sure is quicker.

the black trim is grosgrain ribbon. the rose comes from a bouquet I deconstructed. the bow is the same ivory cotton which I painted with black fabric paint to get the stripes just right. I never thought of using fabric paint in this way before, but I’m pleased with the end result.

next week, I’ll tackle the skirts. I already have the ivory underskirt pattern made, and the skirt is finished except for needing hemming. then I have to figure out how to drape the pink overskirt, and of course I have to trim the both of them with a gajillion pleats. the pleating and the trim is going to be the worst part of the whole outfit, so if I can get it done on my next off week, I’ll be golden!

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